Pesticide compositions are well known and are essential to reduce the level of pest infestation in crops, foods, plants and the like. It is well known that many pesticide compositions are quite toxic to the environment and therefore there is always a need to provide a pesticide composition that has a reduced toxicity.
Pesticide compositions typically have a further disadvantage that the active ingredient as well as being quite toxic, has no function other than killing pests. That is, the active ingredients do not have any beneficial effect on the soil etc.
Some attempts have been made to reduce the toxicity of the active ingredients in pesticide compositions. For instance, in grain silos it is known to spray or dust the internal walls with a coarse silica composition. However, while this acts as some form of deterrent, it is found that this type of composition is not particularly effective in other situations.
Silica has been used in a dry dust form to reduce pest infestations. However, the silica in this type of application has a relatively large particle size that makes it unsuitable or less suitable for spray applications and makes it unsuitable or less suitable when mixed with water to provide a stable suspension, as the silica tends to settle out. Moreover, in the dry dust form, the silica provides a dust hazard.